The Real You
by BonesBird
Summary: While Hotch is packing up Haley's house he finds a letter she wrote after their divorce.


**Title: The Real You  
Summary: While Hotch is packing up Haley's house he finds a letter she wrote after their divorce.  
Lyrics: Outside - Staind**

**As always, dedicated to Sheila **

_**

* * *

And you can bring me to my knees  
**__**All this time that I could make you breathe**_

He opened the letter he'd found tucked away in a box of her belongings. He was packing up her house. _Their_ house. He couldn't believe this had happened. He was already missing everything about her. Every little thing that he would never see again. He sat and stared at her artistic handwriting. So unlike his. Hers was feminine, beautiful. He stared at the signature.

_**All the times that I felt insecure  
**__**And I leave a burning path of flame**_

"_Aaron, I don't know if I'll ever have the courage to give this to you, or if you'll ever read these words. But they are words that I have to write. Regardless of what I do with them" _He almost heard her speaking as he read her words. He traced a finger over the letter, hearing Jack playing with some cars on the corridor just outside the room.

_**All this time that I felt like this won't add, once for you  
**__**And I taste what I could never have, it's from you**_

"_I still love you. I'll always love you. I'm sure you know that" _He nodded to himself, pulling his knees up to underneath his chin, he remembered sitting like this when he was younger, normally with Haley, their friends and a camp fire. _"Things got in the way of us. Life did"_

_**All those times that I tried my intentions full of pride  
**__**And I waist more time than anyone**_

"_I never wanted to say goodbye like this Aaron. But I'm just so defeated."_ He finally realised when she had written this. The case, before she left him. Before his world had crumpled around him. Before everything that had lead to him packing up this house. Finding this letter. _"in my heart I know you made the best decision for you."_

_**All the times that I've cried  
**__**All that's wasted it's all inside**_

"_But that wasn't the best decision for us, for me and Jack" _Her talking of what she and Jack had needed then were what Jack would need now. Support. Love. He would need to show a part of himself he wasn't entirely sure existed anymore. _"We need more stability." _Stability, that was something he has never really thought about. _"And I was so angry. So angry"_

_**And I feel all this pain  
**__**Stuffed it down it's back again**_

"_That you'd chose your job over us. Sometimes, I can't help but think that maybe I was too rash, too harsh." _How could she ever think she had been too harsh on him. Ever_ "But I couldn't take it anymore. I was the one who brought you back. Always." _He couldn't argue with that. She was his anchor. She always had been and even now she always would be.

_**And I lie here in bed  
**__**All alone I can't mend**_

"_I was the one who would hold you when you'd wake up in the night, I would remind you of the good things in life" _She was the good thing. Now she was gone. He only had a part of her, the part that was Jack. Now Jack would have to live with a broken man. _"Anyway. This is not what I thought it would be, I thought it would be filled with reasons, with things about you I hated"_

_**And I feel tomorrow will be okay  
**__**But I know**_

"_But there isn't anything. I know that what you did was what you wanted. Not because you didn't love Jack and me, but because you love the human race so much more" _He frowned a little looking at her words. Wondering what she meant. He didn't love anybody more than he loved her and Jack. _"You want to protect everybody, and you're good at that."_

_**That I'm on the outside  
**__**I'm looking in**_

"_And all I can say is that I still love you." _His silent tears broke through with that sentence. He gently folded the letter back up and placed it back in it's envelope. Instead of placing it back in the box of trinkets he put it in the boxes of things going with them. She loved him, and he'd love her forever.

_**I can see through you  
**__**See your true colours  
**__**Cause inside you're ugly  
**__**You're ugly like me  
**__**I can see through you  
**__**See to the real you**_


End file.
